Canada Line workers vote in favour of strike action

The workers on SkyTrain’s Canada Line have voted in favour of going on a labour strike.

The Canada Line’s 150 workers are represented by the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU), which said today that 99 per cent of the workers have voted in favour of job action.

Their previous collective agreement expired more than a year ago at the end of December 2013.

“The strength of the strike vote reflects the commitment of our members to negotiate a fair and reasonable collective agreement,” reads a statement by Paul Finch, BCGEU treasurer. “We are committed to meaningful negotiations with the help of a mediator later this month. However, if mediation fails we are prepared to increase pressure to negotiate an agreement.”

Mediation is scheduled to begin on January 19 at the Labour Relations Board in Vancouver. There is no indication of when job action could begin.

The Canada Line is part of Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain network and is publicly owned by TransLink. However, it is operated privately by ProTransBC, a subsidiary of Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. It is independent of TransLink’s B.C. Rapid Transit Company, which operates and maintains the older Expo and Millennium Lines.